“At the core of every episode we want to have some sort of message to students about the services the SA provides,” said Vivienne Kay – co-star of the Viv and Liv show during an interview on March 10 with the Algonquin Times.
The Liv and Viv show is an online web series produced by the Student Association that releases videos every Friday; some of their videos have reached 20,000 views online. It is hosted by three Algonquin students: Olivia Routuffe, Vivienne Kay and Chelsea “the intern” Rutherford.
Routuffe, Kay and Rutherford expected to have a regular desk job at the SA but things took an unexpected twist.
“The way the show started is actually kind of a funny story – we were sitting in the office on one of our first days and our boss, who is hilarious, said wait your name is liv and your name is Viv – we are making a show this year,” said Routuffe.
The show is a pilot project for this year and was created by chance that the Liv and Viv names rhymed.
“Our social media coordinator saw a lot of things online on what colleges and universities in Canada are doing to get students involved and we taking our own unique route,” said Routuffe.
“At the beginning we were awkward bunnies, but as we got more practice we got much better,” said Kay.
The college gets 6,000 to 8,000 new students a year. Part of the SA’s job is to educate those new students on the different services and events that are happening around the college, and the Liv and Viv show is a new and entertaining way to do that.
“I just like to go out and play with the students; it’s a really great way for people to get to meet each other,” said Kay.
“Some of our ideas are improve. We like to look at some of the services the SA has and figure out hilarious ways to highlight them and try and make it as relatable to students as possible,” said Rutherford.
“At the end of the day the SA is a great way for students to enrich their college experience and we want students to know about them, be a part of them, and make new friends and to try to break things up from the 9-5 college work,” said Kay.
“Some people come to college once, others twice, some three times – whether it’s your first time or your eighteenth time, we want students to have fun and benefit from the services, just get involved,” said Kay.